Research suggests simple ways to boost children's literacy skills

Researchers at Ohio State University have a tip for preschool teachers and parents as they are reading to their children.

A 30-week study found that specific references to print in books - such as pointing out letters and words on pages or showing capital letters - can have a major impact on children's literacy skills.

"Using print references during reading was just a slight tweak to what teachers were already doing in the classroom, but it led to a sizeable improvement in reading for kids," said Shayne Piasta, co-author of the study and assistant professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State University.

"This would be a very manageable change for most preschool teachers, who already are doing storybook reading in class."

Piasta conducted the study with lead investigator Laura Justice, professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State, as well as co-investigators Anita McGinty of the University of Virginia and Joan Kaderavek of the University of Toledo. Their results appear in the April 2012 issue of the journal Child Development.

The study is part of Project STAR (Sit Together And Read), a randomized clinical trial based at Ohio State to test the short- and long-term impacts associated with reading regularly to preschool children. It involved more than 300 children in 85 classrooms.

Piasta said research suggests that making references to print while reading helps children learn the code of letters and how they relate to words and to meaning.

"By showing them what a letter is and what a letter means, and what a word is and what a word means, we're helping them to crack the code of language and understand how to read," she said.

This research was supported by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education.